Review: The Legend of Korra Book 4, “Operation Beifong”

This episode of The Legend of Korra, Operation Beifong, is a great example of the series’ intertwining of the personal journeys of the characters with the happenings in the world at large. Kuvira has seized both Zaofu and the majority of the Beifongs, physically and symbolically solidifying her rule over the Earth Kingdom Empire, and with the United Republics on the defensive no rescue is forthcoming. However, with two Beifongs on the outside, Lin and Opal, a secret rescue mission is mounted with Bolin, desperately trying to win back Opal’s affection, along for the ride. Of course, no Beifong rescue mission would be complete without the family matriarch Toph, who meets the group on the outskirts of Zaofu, and the struggle between Kuvira’s political ambitions and the Beifong family bond begins.

The storyline at times is a continuation of Lin’s character arc from the last book, wherein she struggled to reconcile with her sister, Suyin, following a fractured past. They managed to start the process of making up but here we learn that Lin also harbours ill feelings towards her mother. Toph, as she admits during their atmospheric campfire conversation wherein Bolin continues to place his foot firmly in his mouth, was probably not the best mother. There is definitely truth in that, as Toph’ free spirit combined with her earlier dedication to the police force of Republic City likely provided a rather confusing environment of mixed messages to her daughters and Lin, being the eldest, probably bore the brunt of that. Again though, Lin manages to push aside her animosity and work towards reconciliation. This episode provided a nice-end note to this arc as all the Beifongs, minus Percy Weasley Bataar Jr., are together at the end as a successful rescue mission acts as a set piece for a family reunion.

“Sooo, who is Lin’s dad?” ~ Bolin

Speaking of set pieces, one of the great aspects of this episode was the action set pieces. The Suyin and Kuvira fight aboard the spirit supercannon was intense and dynamic. Metalbender against metalbender isn’t a match-up seen very often in this show and it was great to see one up close and personal. Despite the intensity, the dynamic of the fight was almost swashbuckling and full of great small moments, such as Suyin forming her own body armour out of one the metal sheet panels from the cannon itself. As par for the course for this show, this scene, along with the other fight scenes of the episode, was extremely well-choreographed, especially the build-up earthbending move that Toph pulled to break her companions out of an encirclement. The other big set-piece of this episode was the underground prison, a cavernous space large enough so that earthbenders could be imprisoned within the centre and not be able to bend their way out. This prison was highly reminiscent of Ming-Hua’s prison from last season and also a nod to the earthbending prisons of The Last Airbender. This provided a very cool visual space for the rescue mission to take place.

On the Right: Totally not a Traitor

Of course, the emotional lynchpin of this episode was Zhu Li. Her continual sabotage of the spirit superweapon and Kuvira’s discovery of her betrayal during the testing of the weapon were one of the more intriguing parts of the episode, especially coming from such a previously undeveloped character. Regardless, Zhu Li is building herself up a nice list of betrayals, perhaps enough that Varrick’s prediction of her name becoming synonymous with betrayal may come true. Although hinted at previously, Toph confirms early in the episode that Zhu Li is lying to Kuvira, although she doesn’t know what about, which lends a subtle tension to the rest of the episode before the beans finally spill a Zhu-li winds up tied to a post with a supercannon pointed at her face. Bolin’s decision to rescue her, on the basis of the so much off-screen stuff they had been through together, was a pretty good character moment in itself and leads straight to the revelation that Kuvira plans to attack Republic City in a mere two weeks.

“So, Asami And I Watched Evangelion And We Have This Great Idea”

There were a number of fun and cool minor moments sprinkled throughout the episode. Bataar and his apparent fear of heights and his calling Toph mom were particularly standout moments of humour amid a relatively serious episode. Another was the brief scene of Varrick and Asami presenting their flying mech suit idea to President Reiko, which seemed foreboding as all hell especially as Kuvira plans her assault. This assault appears to be coming, or at least beginning in the next episode, entitled Kuvira’s Gambit. Sounds risky.

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An avid reader and fan of storytelling no matter the medium.
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